PhillyMike
My Green Legion duties took me across the pond for the Eagles game at Wembley Stadium just two weeks ago.
Can I just say… WHAT A BLAST!
The news media tend to inflate how many Eagles fans there are at away games, but it truly was a sea of green in the heart of London all week. On my first day, I took a little stroll around town to see some sights and get my bearings with my Eagles jacket on and got three separate unsolicited “GO BIRDS!” from UK fans.
Yes, the Green Legion brought 1,300 fans over, but the stadium had to be 70/30 Eagles vs. Jags fans. The Jags’ in-stadium hosts brought Jon Dorenbos on the big screen for a brief interview and he requested, and received, an Eagles chant that sounded like it does at The Linc. GOOD TIMES!
It was interesting to speak to the UK NFL fans over there.
First off, they really do know their stuff and they don’t show up for the novelty of it. I did a radio show with Liam Jenkins (@LiamJenkins21) of the UK-based Philadelphia Sports Network, and we talked about offensive line focus, Carson Wentz’s health, and what position group we’d want Howie Roseman to improve before the trade deadline occurred.
I asked quite a few of these guys what was their initial step into the Eagles or NFL and it was universal: Madden. Similar to how FIFA has helped grow international soccer here in the States, playing the Madden game was how most started paying attention to the NFL.
Post-game, we went to a bar that hosts all NFL games during the season and it was like a United Nations. Literally every NFL team was represented. How often have you seen a Tampa Bay fan in the wild outside of Florida? More importantly, why? “I started playing Madden in 2002 and loved Alstott,” was one fan’s answer. Disregarding travel time, exchange rates and other logistics, London can definitely support an NFL franchise.
Some other interesting notes:
London is the cleanest city I’ve ever seen and has zero trash cans on the street. They just don’t throw trash on the ground, what a concept! We stayed in a crazy busy area, Piccadilly Circus – think Times Square – and there was no honking. Imagine walking from Broad and Walnut to Love Park in rush hour and hearing no honking!
For soccer matches, there is no drinking allowed in the stands. Because of this rule, the concourses are super wide; if you want a beer, you go out to buy it, drink it, and then go back to your seats. The concourses were at least twice as wide as The Linc’s.
The Jaguars had two mascots. We gave it the one on our end all day. He tried to do mascoty things like putting his fingers in his ears and waving to us, but that guy had a bad day in the office. At one point, both mascots were on our side and I’m willing to bet they were crying under their costumes.
Wembley has NO ticket-takers. Everything is electronic and you scan your ticket at the gate one at a time and you get in through the smallest turnstile you’ve ever seen. Everything works in orderly fashion and everything moves faster than the “everybody for themselves” way we do things.
I didn’t find a decent cup of filtered coffee all week.
Bars close between 11-12 on weekends, which is fine – just start earlier!
Finally, thanks so much to the entire Preston & Steve Show for basically walking off a red eye straight to our party and did a complete live show broadcasting back to Philly. True pros… CHEERS!
PhillyMike is a contributor to Philly Influencer. You can follow him on Twitter (@PhillyMike) and e-mail him at [email protected].
Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.